Hikka Fest Fracas

The Minister of Tourism Promotion Faizer Mustapa buckled last week apologising for the indecent behaviour and the semi nude tourists at the Hikka Fest.

There’s been a clamour about the pictures of the scantily dressed foreign women dancing provocatively at the beach fest. Some say the pictures have been in circulation months ahead of the beach party, and some say those pictures were taken in Dubai.

I say whether the pictures were from the Hikka Fest or not, is entirely beside the point. Doesn’t this feel oddly like the mobile phones and porn ban in the country?

What’s the government going to do now? Ban the Hikka Fest? Hand out ‘Dress Code’ guides at the air port? Or better yet, hand tourists sarongs to tie up at the bust before heading to the beach or any body of water, and fine them heftily if they’re spotted without them?

You can be sure a strict regime isn’t going to help tourism in Sri Lanka, which is a primary revenue generator of the island.

If we are to develop as a nation we have to accept that development and cultural influences cannot be sundered. Though communist parties have argued that Sri Lanka can be self-sufficient and develop without losing its culture, it’s impossible fortify the island from foreign influences unless its isolate completely from the rest of the world. We also have to consider that at where Sri Lanaka stands at the moment, self-sufficency is light years away. But say we do end up being self-sufficient, if we continue to export and import and allow people to travel in and out of the country foreign cultural influences WILL infiltrate Lankan culture. Take China for example, they’re still influenced by Western culture even though they can stand on their own feet.

Also, having watched the documentary ‘Tank Man’ , I discovered that the generation that grew up after the Tiananmen Square episode are oblivious to it… Isn’t it strange how the rest of the world is aware of what happened in 1989 at the Tiananmen Square protest, while the Chinese are completely oblivious to it? By blocking google search, destroying all documentations of the ghastly killing, China has successfully drawn the blinds on a major historical event to bolster its communist regime. And that’s nothing short of disgusting! The Chinese are living a lie.

And then we have Malaysia, alright… so it would seem it’s sunshine and smiles over there. But that’s just what everyone is made to believe. No one knows about what really goes down in the supposedly ‘truly asian country’ because all media organisations are under government control. NOTHING seeps out to the public. At least in Sri Lanka journalists report on the uncouth activity of the government albeit at the risk of being whizzed off in a white van or receiving a bullet to their brain. Which I’d rather have than have my mind manipulated by some communist!

Right… I think I’ve gone off on a tangent as usual. Going back to the point a few paragraphs above, let’s assume that the government is being genuine in stating that it really cares about preserving Sri Lankan culture (modesty in particular).

1. Sri Lankan culture is in fact Vaddas with mangled hair, skipping about in grass skirts. Anything else considered ‘Sri Lankan culture’ is from refined influences. So the culture we have today isn’t something that’s truly Lankan. Culture WILL be influenced. You can impede the process, but you cannot stop it.

2. Our culture never really had that element of modesty to begin with. The frescoes on the Sigiriya rock reveal women during Kassiappa’s time went around topless (assuming the King hadn’t decreed that…). But even if you take present Lankan culture, the lama saree isn’t exactly a modest either.

Another possibility (though highly unlikely) is that the government is trying to cultivate modesty and thereby protect the people. If there’s a naive lot who believe that trite, they should know that the government isn’t taking the right measures. They’re going about it all wrong which makes this argument the least convincing.

Sometime back a Minister, appalled by the university students wearing jeans and t-shirts which he considered lewd spoke about having the female students wear the ‘lama saree’. But that two piece garment hardly qualifies as chaste! Besides, I read somewhere that most rape victims wore skirts than trousers ’cause skirts made the rapist’s life a lot easier.

What’s most likely is that these are distractions created by the government to keep people from noticing what’s really going on. Throwing the watch dogs a few bones to keep them off its trail. You must have noticed that the banning of mobile phones and porn, and the Hikka fest outcry have taken place over a suspiciously short span of time?

Love or Lust?

Disclaimer: The reference of ‘love’ in this post is in the context of an inamorato/ inamorata. Not love for your parents, kids, siblings, friends, etc.

At the risk of having an angry mob hunt me down and them subjecting me to a tiresome harangue about how wrong I am, I’d say it’s all lust. Since the time matrimonial rituals were of cavemen bludgeoning the object of their affection over the head and dragging her back to their cave/home, love has been confused with lust.

Then again, I believe the emotion we have termed “love” (refer disclaimer) has been conjured up by some sadistic individual. I don’t think it’s natural or innate. After quite a bit of deliberation I’ve concluded that it’s a synthetic emotion that with the brainwashing of the media, we are beguiled into believing it’s genuine.

Often I find myself consoling love burned friends. And more often than not these hopeless, broken friends happen to be guys! I’ve thus come to the conclusion that men are more faint of heart when it comes to the myth of love. It’s amazing really! I’ve heard it all, from “she’s the one!” to  “I’ll never love anyone more than I love her, for all of eternity!”…

At which point I want to just grab them by the shoulders and shake some sense into them!

My cynical opinion could have been developed while consoling these cupid damned souls. Being the person consoling them, I’ve found myself looking at this sort of love objectively.

Also, it’s only fair that it be known I’m more emotionally detached than the average person. There have been a countless number of times when people, including my friends and even my mom, have told me that I’m not the sort of person who’s ruled by my heart.

When faced with a problem, I tend to step back, analyze it and come up with the best possible solution. How I feel about it or how others may feel about it is irrelevant, ’cause everyone/ everything will be as right as rain when the solution is put into effect (and it always is).

Here’s a bit of what my heart-broken guy friends are going through-

* Friend One tends to fall hard. When he falls in love with someone, his “love” becomes engraved in stone. He’ll love all his crushes and ex’s till his dying day. He’s also the guy who believes that there is only one girl for him. And even though she’s just cruel to him AND it’s been years since they were together, he is still madly in love with her. (Where’s the logic in that?)

* Friend Two falls in (and not necessarily out of) love with a new girl every two minutes. His feelings are always intense, the “I can’t survive without her” sort. Would you believe there’s ALWAYS some complication in hooking up with the girl.

* Friend Three is your regular badass- sex, drugs and rock and roll. He loves his weed and booze, and he smokes like a chimney. He says he was a saint before, it was love that had driven him towards the afore mentioned. According to him “one innocent” girl who broke his heart is to be blamed for his addictions.

Those are the three main types, other friends (including the girls) are mixes of the three.

I love my friends to bits so you can imagine how infuriating it is to see them hurt and depressed. Especially when it’s pain inflicted on themselves for something ridiculous as being in love. It isn’t surprising why I’m cynical about love, is it?

If you think things through and not give into your heart so easily, you wouldn’t find yourself in these situations. It’s all pretty simple really.

And come on, there are more important things in life than having a main squeeze! Love is nothing more than a mythical construct designed by a sadistic caveman, and has been exploited by the media since menhirs were used for advertising. Wake up and smell the deceit!

Scary Prospect

Born during the war, all I’ve ever known is of Sri Lanka being at arms. While the end of the war is epical, it still seems a bit surreal. For me, it’s still to sink in.

I’m getting there though. The way the country is celebrating who wouldn’t be convinced. We’ve got a thunderous explosion of crackers every five minutes that make the walls shudder and plaster from the ceiling pepper on your head.

Stepping outside your nostrils are assaulted by the smell of magnesium hovering thick in the air, you can’t miss the pavements littered with bits of paper, and of course the flags and the posters of the President in a brotherly embrace of Gothabaya, at every turn.

While this is a blithesome time for Sri Lanka, you can’t help but think about how things will unfold from here. Ruminating on the present situation, the grim prospect (that reared its head ever since the odds were in favour of the army) became that irksome bit of fiber stuck between your teeth. Unfortunately, there’s no mental equal to floss that can dislodge a thought.

The scary prospect is of a leader who is revered to the point where he’d be able to get away with anything…

Yes, winning the war is monumental in the panorama of Sri Lankan history, but what’s crucial now is the proper rebuilding of the country. How that comes about is pivotal in the shaping of the future of the island.

We’re in a country, in which at the recent elections people voted for the present regime predominantly because of the war. They called it the “war vote”. What seems to have flown right past them is the fact that it was a “provincial” election. There was no way their vote could have had an impact on the ensuing war, especially while the battle was about won.

What about a balance in power? The idea of the island in the firm fist of a single party is bit frightful. You can bet they’d be able to get away with corruption of the most atrocious degree, and the people would be so blinded by them routing the terrorist that they will probably condone their corrupt ways for years to come.

It’s a sealed, done deal. All we can hope for is that the present regime doesn’t get carried away with the unlimited power they’ve acquired and actually put the country before their needs.

Purgatory of the Hypocrites

After much deliberation I decided to revamp my old Blogspot blog. Deleting my old post, it is now a blog exclusively for my poetry.

Not that I write much poetry… it seems a bit of a waste now

Well anyway, here’s one of my poems Purgatory of the Hypocrites.

The vicious cycle

The number of people who rallied together at Lasantha’s funeral was an impressive 7000 and more.

Apparently only 1 in 5 were from political parties, the rest were people affiliated with the media, lawyers, those who knew Lasantha and regular folk who support the fourth pillar of state- the media.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out about the latter group of people. I had always felt the public was more or less apathetic towards media suppression. It certainly was hortative to see them march along side journalists in a time when the media is under siege.

However this seems to be all we can do. Inspirit the media.

Whenever a journalist is assaulted or assassinated, or a media organisation is attacked- we protest.

Besides showing solidarity and support during these harrowing times, protesting seems to serve no other purpose.

We’ve been showing our indignation for years but the media is still being attacked. Nothing has changed, and if I’m not mistaken, the assailants and perpetrators are still at large.

The way I see it, it’s just a cruel cycle. As journalists are killed or flee the country, more will come to fight their cause. To be the fourth pillar of state. To be the watch dogs.

It’s not a losing battle so long as there are intrepid journalists to keep the government in place and maintain democracy within the country.

But the questions that rear are, how many journalists are there who are willing to risk their lives? And how much longer can we hold out against opposing forces?